Czech president Miloš Zeman has put his name to a petition opposing an EU diktat which would clamp down on legal gun-owners and backed a constitutional amendment which would guarantee citizens’ right to keep arms for self-defence and protection of the homeland.

The directive on tightening control of firearms under the guise of counter-terrorism was approved by the European Parliament in mid-March, and would see the Czech Republic — which combines comparatively liberal gun rights with low levels of crime and extremely low levels of terrorism — forced to impose new restrictions or face sanctions from Brussels.

Center for Civic Freedoms founder Václav Klaus Jr., son of former president Václav Klaus Sr., complained that the governments of non-democratic and fascist countries disarm their citizens, not free countries.

The petition urges the Czech government and parliament to “reconsider and endorse and approve an amendment to the constitutional law on the security of the Czech Republic, enshrining into our constitutional order the right to legal possession of weapons for defence and internal and external security of our state “, and has already acquired some 170,000 signatures.